Day 3 NSCI Juniors: Close matches enthral people as top seeds exit

Junaid Muzaffar Thoker

Despite sustaining a back strain during the first game, Junaid displayed strong willpower and kept battling on. After losing the first two games he took an injury break and returned to court with plan B. He cleverly changed tactics by slowing down the pace and played defensively.

Junaid won the third game over extra points to turn things around and then went on to win the next two games to close out the match for a deserving 8-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7 victory in a little less than 51 minutes.

Top seeds Paarth Ambani (BU11), Neel Joshi (BU13), Veer Chotrani (BU15), Robin Singh Mann (BU17), Yohan Darius Pandole (BU19) and Yuvna Gupta (GU11), Megha Bhatia (GU13), Navmi Sharma (GU15), Nikita Joshi (GU17), Vruddhi Doshi (GU19) crusied into quarterfinals without any hassle.

Jeh Pandole, Ranked No. 4 ranked in the National Rankings, made 11 errors and 2 strokes cost him the match. His opponent, Jay Vaknalli ranked no. 14 showed better consistency hitting 22 winners as against just 5 errors and went on complete a deserving 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 victory in 20 minutes.

For all results of the day, click here.